He was a writer, he was GQ’s Style Guy. Yet he wondered: What was everyone talking about when they talked about mushrooms? Because he was 27 and had never actually tasted a mushroom. And so he set out to understand a world beyond chicken fingers, guided by a pretty good tutor: legendary chef Daniel Boulud.
That’s the GQ, introducing this article: The Culinary Education of Mr. Mozzarella Sticks.
I loved this article but felt it ended rather abruptly. The characterisation of Boulud (not a name I know in Australia) was particularly wonderful and I enjoyed the author’s self-deprecating tone.
I wonder how Mr Mozzarella Sticks eats now, and whether he has learned to cook at all. He reminds me of a kid I knew who was allowed to eat fast food crap at family dinners, while everybody else ate “real” food. You can guess how that turned out: the kid grew up to be incredibly limited in his tastes, and pretty much unable to function in the grown-up world of dinners and restaurants and things not made by fast food chains. He also wound up being obese.
Yes I think this kind of diet is all too common for some. I also went through school with a boy who had a very bland diet. I remember him once coming to dinner and finding the main course unbearably spicy whereas my siblings and I didn’t really even register that existence of chilli. It often seems to come down to parental values; I think there is certainly a case for “tough love” when it comes to introducing children to new foods!